X-Plane

[JN4OldSchool]

I am into flight simulators. I really like MS flight and even my old flight unlimited. In Linux I am using FlightGear, but lets face it, it leaves a lot to be desired. I just stumbled on X-Plane, which appears to be a top notch simulator that has been around for a while. The website : http://www.x-plane.com is suitably impressive and I am currently downloading the 600MB 6 minute demo to check it out. It is cross platform for Win/Mac/Linux. The catch is you have to buy (gasp) it for around $70 for the full blown Monty with 60GB of world maps etc...A search of this forum only netted 4 threads and no real info. My question, does anyone run this program? How does it rate? Any problems with FC5? Any FC users opinion on this would be welcome.

[PilotJLR]

I hadn't heard of this, but I installed it after reading your post here. and WOW is this thing awesome. Way better than MS Flight Sim and FlightGear. Only bummer is it disables your joystick after 6 mins in demo mode. Gonna have to buy it :-)

Screen grabs attached

[djselbeck]

Hello,

i have the fullversion and i can only confirm that it is a great product. Once i started flying with X-Plane i never wanted MS-Flightsimulator anymore because the flightmodel in X-Plane is much more realistic. And X-Plane has also a very big community. See www.x-plane.org for good downloads,support and anything else concerning x-plane.

DJSelbeck

[JN4OldSchool]

I spent a week and 3 downloads of the demo clicking the exe icon trying to get the stupid thing to run. First note, you need to change the permissions tab on all the exe files to make them executable. Then when i would try to run from the icon I got a message that it couldnt find /resources/sounds/radio chatter. Well, the file is THERE darn it. So I noticed they were .wav files. OK, am I set up for .wav? I think so. Yep...Well, after a week playing with this off and on I finally opened the durn terminal and tried "./X-Plane-i586" and wouldnt you know it? Beautiful program. That 6 minutes goes by so fast though. I ordered the world set for $70 last night. They ship by US mail with a 2nd day UPS as an option. I will just wait on the mail. Like a kid waiting for christmas...

[PilotJLR]

I haven't bought this yet, but I think I will. One question - have you noticed if any airplanes for X-Plane come with a functioning FMS??
I know you can buy a couple add-ons to MS FS with FMS functionality; I bought an RJ-200 model a few months back for MS FLight Sim, but the FMS logic was not realistic enough, and several of the overhead switches didn't work properly. For example, it would let me select bleed air configurations that aren't possible in the real plane. I'm still looking around for something with an FMS that functions properly...

[djselbeck]

Hello,

you don't need expensive addons. The planes which are included in X-Plane and the most of the community have an FMS which is really realistic. It is like an real FMS.

DJSelbeck

PS JN4OldSchool.:You should not download an exe file because they are for windows you should download the binary for linux.

[JN4OldSchool]

my mistake for calling it an .exe file DJSELBECK. I mean the files with the icon that look kinda like a digital camera with the universal "play" symbol on it. These files have no extension and I dont know what to call them. But they are equivalant to the Windows .exe file. At any rate, I did download the Linux installer of course and it was just my stupidity that I didnt try to run it from a terminal sooner. I know better than this. On the plus side I only wasted a few hours on it and I was sidetracked by the fact that it was telling me it couldnt find the sounds file. But alls well that ends well and it is a nice looking program. I am playing around with it as we speak and the more I get into it the more impressed I am. I cant wait for the full package to arrive.

[JN4OldSchool]

OK, I felt a follow up was needed after a few weeks playing this sim almost non-stop :D My wife hates me...This is by far the best $70 I have spent on any computer software. This sim rocks. It blows FlightGear out of the water and I even like it better than MSFS. The plane designer program is awesome, I spend more time building various crafts and modifying them than I do flying. Today I upped the thrust on an F-22 to 999,999 lbs! You have to be gentle on the throttle but it can book. It also has more than enough thrust to reach the stratosphere in under 10 seconds but once you hit space the engines stall and you lose flight control and are basically stuck in an orbit. Just one of many many neat little experments you can do. Not to mention painting new skins for your fleet.

Here are three of my better screenshots, I have so many cool ones it was hard to decide. The first is an O-1 Bird Dog over Cent. Fl. marking a target for the fast mover coming in in the background. The fast mover is actually a jet liner, but who cares, the shot is cool. Took a while to set it up. The second is a P-38 launching a missle and the third is one of my favorites. I call it "A Tiger In Orlando" a P-40 at low altitude, high speed with canopy open.

If you are in any way interested in flight and want a cool flight sim this is the one. Even for the Windows folk. Money well spent.

[PilotJLR]

Agreed! Yeah, it's pretty cool. The flight characteristics of many of the airplanes is much closer to the real thing than any other consumer sim I've used. I used to fly professionally, so my standards are pretty high.
I've just hit the tip of the iceberg on its capabilities, but the plane designer app looks promising!

I've attached a thumbnail of the 747 at night (it flies very well), and also a shot of practicing critical engine failures in the King Air.

[Griffin26]

I had bought the program for windows. But all of the versions are on the DVDs. Windows, Mac, and Linux installers. Im new to Linux, and a pro at Flight Sims. I will be installing this sim today. :)

[fakie_flip]

If I order it, can I get both the Linux and Windows versions or only the Linux version? How do I install the program? Is the Linux and Windows versions on the same cds? Thanks.

[Griffin26]

Yes you will get all three vesison of the program. The orginal program was written for Mac, and was ported to Linux, and Windows. Have fun with it.

[JN4OldSchool]

If I order it, can I get both the Linux and Windows versions or only the Linux version? How do I install the program? Is the Linux and Windows versions on the same cds? Thanks.

Reply via PM :)

[bmvbab]

is it possible to download the demo file directly without using their isntaller? Can someone give me the links?

[Coolerthanyou]

I first remember playing this a couple years ago when a friend showed it to me. I was able to land the space shuttle on the first try while my friend hadn't at all. It's a great sim but without proper controllers and monitors, it didn't interest me enough to spend that much on a game. And for the kind of money you'd have to spend on all that I'd sooner pay for real pilot lessons. That would be nice.

[PilotJLR]

Flying for real is definitely better, yes... but it's also way more expensive.
Consider about $130 per hour times 60 hours on average for a PPL...

Then with Xplane, a great LCD monitor is $300, $100 yoke/joystick, $70 DVD... not too shabby really!

[JN4OldSchool]

Flying for real is definitely better, yes...

Real life is better? Ah man, you had to tell me that after I went and ordered that new wife simulator...

Then with Xplane, a great LCD monitor is $300, $100 yoke/joystick, $70 DVD... not too shabby really!

Yes, the better the monitor the better the experience. Lets not forget the computer, it takes some power to run X-Plane right. It just seems the code isnt put together that well, it needlessly burns RAM...It is probably the most intensive thing I have ran in Windows or Linux to date. I use a cheap sidewinder joystick that works great. Maybe someday a yoke...<dreaming> I just got a set of CH pro pedals. Oh, what a difference! I was peeved that they cost $100 but they are a solid quality product. Great feel to the rudder slide though the toe brakes could be tighter. I have longed for these forever. I prefer taildraggers and my takeoffs with rudder/aileron mixing were comedic at best. But now...Wow!

Yeah, I guess most people, especially gamers, would be dissapointed with a sim, but I fly for hours. I dont know, it is just relaxing. No, it's far from a real life experience (not a pilot, but know a few) but to just thermal in a sailplane, fly an F4 Phantom or the Hindenburgh...I love the connie, that is a great model...Yeah, money well spent for me...

[Coolerthanyou]

$300 monitor and a joystick? No that's not what I'm thinking of. Cruising the sky is nice but I prefer action type of flying. I used to play a lot of air combat sims, or part sims part fun. You should see the kind of stuff some people have put together. We're talking several monitors for peripheral view, then at least joystick, rudder pedals and throttle - are a must. That's much more than I'll probably ever spend on game stuff.

[juanvm]

Reading from this thread, many had bought x-plane and installed without problems, contrary to what I had read in other Linux forums and the problems that I have trying to install x-plane v8.4
in my system. Could anyone that installed x-plane without (or minor) problems, share his "installation procedure".

[JN4OldSchool]

OK, been so long since I actually installed this I forgot how. There are a few glitches but it will work out in the end. If you havent already check out the X-Plane forum. This is a great place to start and there are a handful of Linux users (mostly SuSE and Ubuntu :mad: ) in there.

http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?&act=idx

You will want to DL your TWO installers here:

http://dev.x-plane.com/installer/1.16/

get the linux DVD installer AND the Linux net installer. You wont need the scenery installer. The next step is to open the net installer and try to get the demo version. You might want to put this in your /home directery instead of bin as you will be working with this file quite a bit. Once it's DL'd you will want to check the permissions on everything, they tend to not be executable until you change it. Try to run it from the terminal (./X-Plane-i586) and if it tells you you need libopenal.so.0 you will have to install this. I believe it goes by a different name in the FC repo, look under openal I think. You might also have to start X-Plane with an LD_Preload command like so: "LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libalut.so.0 ./X-Plane-i586" If this is the case dont sweat it, you can place this script in the startup entry in the menu.

Next step is you have to get the DVD to create a physical mount point instead of a virtual one. See this link:

http://forums.fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=103810&highlight=howto

Then you should be able to pop in the main install DVD and open the DVD installer you had previously DL'd and point it to the DVD. You should be gold at this point. The scenery installers on each DVD should work fine, if not you can always DL the scenery installer from the above link. Good luck and post back with any problems, as I said, it has been a long while since I installed this and I may have forgot something.

[juanvm]

Hello :)

System:
AMD Athlon 3000+
ATI 850XT
OS Kubuntu 6.10

glxinfo
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
juan@juan-desktop:~$ glxinfo
name of display: :0.0
display: :0 screen: 0
direct rendering: Yes
server glx vendor string: SGI
server glx version string: 1.2
server glx extensions:
GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating,
GLX_EXT_import_context, GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap, GLX_OML_swap_method,
GLX_SGI_make_current_read, GLX_SGIS_multisample, GLX_SGIX_hyperpipe,
GLX_SGIX_swap_barrier, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig, GLX_MESA_copy_sub_buffer
client glx vendor string: ATI
client glx version string: 1.3
client glx extensions:
GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_EXT_import_context,
GLX_ARB_get_proc_address, GLX_SGI_video_sync, GLX_ARB_multisample,
GLX_ATI_pixel_format_float, GLX_ATI_render_texture
GLX version: 1.2
GLX extensions:
GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_EXT_import_context,
GLX_ARB_multisample
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: RADEON X850 XT Generic
OpenGL version string: 2.0.6011 (8.28.8)
OpenGL extensions:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Following your procedure...................

root@juan-desktop:/home/juan# chmod +x X-Plane-Net-Install
root@juan-desktop:/home/juan# ./X-Plane-Net-Install
./X-Plane-Net-Install: error while loading shared libraries: libopenal.so.0: can not open shared object file: No such file or directory
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Installed libopenal_0.2005080600-2.1build2_i386.deb library

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
root@juan-desktop:/home/juan# ./X-Plane-Net-Install
Xlib: connection to ":0.0" refused by server
Xlib: No protocol specified

Segmentation fault
root@juan-desktop:/home/juan#
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is my new error, no idea :eek:

[JN4OldSchool]

I dont know what to tell you Juan. Edgy huh? Good OS but one I'm not very intimate with. Did you try just left clicking on the net install icon? Make sure it is set to executable. You shouldnt need the openal lib to just DL the demo, I really dont understand what is happening here. You might be better off searching the X-Plane forum I linked you to, there are a few Ubuntu users floating around there. On the plus side I dont think you will need to fool with physical mount points for your DVD, I think this is a Fedora only thing. I wish you luck and am sorry I cant be of any more help.

[juanvm]

Hello again :D

Did you try just left clicking on the net install icon? :eek:

Is now installing x-plane after mounting the dvd drive UDF..................
When I received the xplane 8 dvd's there was not a single written piece of paper for installation instructions, I did not downloaded the demo, so went to xplane web and downloaded the installers but started having problems, went all over the linux forums for help but all I could see were threads that worked for some and for other their questions went unanswered. I had Fedora Core 6 installed but really had a hard time getting my ATI 850XT
working properly, installed ubuntu and it was easy to set the ATI.
Now what installer is use to install the scenery disk's, the same or is a different installer??

Thanks for you help :D
Juan

[JN4OldSchool]

each scenery disc should have an installer in it's menu. These USUALLY work. If one fails then just download the scenery installer from the web site. Glad you are on track.